High speed rotary cutters are well known in the art. However, one nagging problem with such cutters is that foreign materials such as baling twine, wire or stringy crop materials can sometimes migrate into the bearing cavity of the cutters and wrap around the rotating spindle. This can cause damage to seals associated with the bearings and lead to premature bearing failure. Even if the materials do not reach the bearing cavity, they can still become wrapped tightly under the cutter mounting member of the assembly and build up to such a point that they generate an inordinate amount of heat, which can also result in premature bearing failure.
Accordingly, an important object of the present invention is to provide a rotary cutter assembly that inhibits the migration of deleterious materials into the immediate vicinity of the bearing assembly of the unit. It is also an important object of the invention to provide a cutter design that encourages foreign materials that would otherwise migrate to the center of the assembly to instead wrap around more exterior portions of the assembly in places less likely to cause damage and where they can be more easily removed.